The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Emerging at the vanguard of the "California Sound", the band's early music gained international popularity for their distinct vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. Influenced by jazz-based vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and doo-wop, Brian led the band to experiment with several genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic and baroque while devising novel approaches tomusic production and arranging. While initially managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, Brian's creative ambitions and sophisticated songwriting abilities dominated the group's musical direction. Released in 1966, the Pet Sounds album and the "Good Vibrations" single featured an intricate and multi-layered sound that represented a departure from the simplesurf rock of the Beach Boys' early years. Soon after, Brian gradually ceded control to the rest of the band, reducing his input due to mental health and substance abuseissues. Though the more democratic incarnation of the Beach Boys recorded a string of albums in various musical styles that garnered international critical success, the group struggled to reclaim their commercial momentum in America. Since the 1980s, much-publicized legal wrangling over royalties, songwriting credits and use of the band's name transpired. Dennis drowned in 1983 and Carl died of lung cancer in 1998. After Carl's death, many live configurations of the band fronted by Mike Love and Bruce Johnston continued to tour into the 2000s while other members pursued solo projects. For the band's 50th anniversary, the surviving co-founders briefly reunited for a new studio album and world tour. The Beach Boys are often touted "America's Band",1 and AllMusic stated that their "unerring ability…made them America's first, best rock band."2 The group had over eighty songs chart worldwide, thirty-six of them United States Top 40 hits (the most by an American rock band), four reaching number-one on the 'Billboard'' Hot 100'' chart.2 The Beach Boys have sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling bands of all time and are listed at number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".34 The core quintet of the three Wilsons, Love and Jardine were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.1 Contents hide * 1 1958–66: Brian Wilson era ** 1.1 Formation ** 1.2 Beach-themed period ** 1.3 Today! and Summer Days ** 1.4 Pet Sounds ** 1.5 "Good Vibrations" and Smile * 2 1967–77: the Beach Boys as a democratic unit ** 2.1 Smiley Smile and Wild Honey ** 2.2 Friends and 20/20 ** 2.3 Sunflower, Surf's Up, "So Tough", and Holland ** 2.4 15 Big Ones and Love You * 3 1978–present ** 3.1 Intergroup struggles ** 3.2 Deaths of Dennis and Carl ** 3.3 Band split and name conflicts *** 3.3.1 50th year reunion celebration *** 3.3.2 Resumed band split * 4 Musical style and development ** 4.1 Influences ** 4.2 Vocal ability ** 4.3 As instrumentalists ** 4.4 Songwriting and production * 5 Legacy ** 5.1 Cultural and musical impact *** 5.1.1 Reappraisal ** 5.2 Awards and honors ** 5.3 Influenced * 6 Discography * 7 Selected filmography * 8 See also * 9 Notes * 10 References * 11 Sources * 12 Further reading * 13 External links 1958–66: Brian Wilson eraedit Formationedit A historical landmark at 3701 W. 119th St., Hawthorne, California marking where the Wilson family home once stood At the time of his sixteenth birthday on June 20, 1958, Brian Wilson shared a bedroom with his brothers, Dennis and Carl – aged thirteen and eleven, respectively – in their family home in Hawthorne. He had watched his father, Murry Wilson, play piano, and had listened intently to the harmonies of vocal groups such as the Four Freshmen.5 After dissecting songs such as "Ivory Tower" and "Good News", Brian would teach family members how to sing the background harmonies.6 For his birthday that year, Brian was given a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He learned how to overdub, using his vocals and those of Carl and their mother.5 Brian would play piano with Carl and David Marks, an eleven-year-old longtime neighbor, playing the guitars they had each received as Christmas presents.7 Soon Brian and Carl were avidly listening to Johnny Otis' KFOX radio show.5 Inspired by the simple structure and vocals of the rhythm and blues songs he heard, Brian changed his piano-playing style and started writing songs.[citation needed] His enthusiasm interfered with his music studies at school. Family gatherings brought the Wilsons in contact with cousinMike Love. Brian taught Love's sister Maureen and a friend harmonies.5 Later, Brian, Mike Love and two friends performed at Hawthorne High School.8 Brian also knew Al Jardine, a high school classmate who had already played guitar in a folk group called the Islanders.[citation needed] Brian suggested to Jardine that they team up with his cousin and brother Carl. It was at these sessions, held in Brian's bedroom, that "the Beach Boys sound" began to form. Love encouraged Brian[citation needed] to write songs and gave the fledgling band its name: "The Pendletones",9 a portmanteau of "Pendleton", a style of woolen shirt popular at the time and "tone", the musical term. Although surfing motifs were very prominent in their early songs, Dennis was the only avid surfer in the group.10 He suggested that the group compose songs celebrating the sport and the lifestyle which had developed around it within Southern California.1111 The Beach Boys, inPendleton outfits, performing at a local high school Jardine and a singer friend, Gary Winfrey, went to Brian to see if he could help out with a version of a folk song they wanted to record—"Sloop John B".[citation needed] In Brian's absence, the two spoke with their father, a music industry veteran of modest success. Murry arranged for the Pendletones to meet his publisher, Hite Morgan.1 The group performed a slower ballad, "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring", but failed to impress Morgan. After an awkward pause, Dennis mentioned they had an original song, "Surfin'".[citation needed] Brian finished the song, and together with Mike Love, wrote "Surfin' Safari".11 The group rented guitars, drums, amplifiers and microphones, and practiced for three days while the Wilsons' parents were on a short vacation. In October 1961, the Pendletones recorded the two surfing song demos in twelve takes at Keen Recording Studio.11[not in citation given]2 Murry brought the demos to Herb Newman, owner of Candix Records and Era Records, and he signed the group on December 8, 1961.11 When the boys eagerly unpacked the first box of singles – released both under the Candix label, and also as a promo issue under X Records (Morgan's label) – they were shocked to see their band had been renamed as the Beach Boys.[citation needed] Murry Wilson called Morgan[citation needed] and learned that Candix wanted to name the group the Surfers to directly associate them with the increasingly-popular teen sport. But Russ Regan, a young promoter with Era Records – who later became president of 20th Century Fox Records – noted that there already existed a group by that name, and he suggested calling them the Beach Boys.11 Beach-themed periodedit Main articles: Surfin' Safari, Surfin' U.S.A., Surfer Girl, Little Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Volume 2 and All Summer Long (album) The Beach Boys performing "I Get Around" on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 Released in December 1961, "Surfin'" was soon aired on KFWB and KRLA, two of Los Angeles' most influential teen radio stations. It was a hit on the West Coast, going to number three in Southern California, and peaked at number 75 on the national pop charts. By the final weeks of 1961 "Surfin'" had sold more than 40,000 copies.15 By now the de facto manager of the Beach Boys, he landed the group's first paying gig (for which they earned $300) on New Year's Eve, 1961, at theRitchie Valens Memorial Dance in Long Beach,11 headlined by Ike & Tina Turner.[citation needed] Although Murry effectively seized managerial control of the band, Brian acknowledged that he "deserves credit for getting us off the ground... he hounded us mercilessly... but also worked hard himself". In the first half of February 1962, Jardine left the band and was replaced by Marks. The band recorded two more originals on April 19 at Western Studios, Los Angeles; "Lonely Sea" and "409", also re-recording "Surfin' Safari". On June 4, the band released their second single "Surfin' Safari" backed with "409". The release prompted national coverage in the June 9 issue of Billboard where the magazine praised Love's lead vocal and deemed the song to have strong hit potential.16 After being turned down by Dot and Liberty, the Beach Boys eventually signed a seven-year contract with Capitol Records on July 16 based on the strength of the June demo session.15 This was at the urging of Capitol exec Nik Venet who signed the group, finding them to be the "teenage gold" he had been scouting.17 By November, their first album was ready—''Surfin' Safari'' which reached 32 on the US Billboard charts. Their song output continued along the same commercial line, focusing on California youth lifestyle.1810 In January 1963, three months after the release of their debut album, the band began recording their sophomore effort, Surfin' U.S.A., a breakthrough for Brian, who began asserting himself as songwriter and arranger.18 The LP was the start of Brian's penchant for doubletracking vocals,19 a pioneering innovation which provided the Beach Boys with an exceptionally bright sound.20 Released on March 25, 1963, Surfin' U.S.A., met a more enthusiastic reception, reaching number two on the Billboard charts,[citation needed] propelling the band into a nationwide spotlight, and was vital to launching surf music as a national craze.18 Five days prior to the release of Surfin' U.S.A., Brian produced "Surf City", a song he had written for Jan and Dean. "Surf City" hit number one on the Billboard charts in July 1963, a development that pleased Brian but angered Murry, who felt his son had "given away" what should have been the Beach Boys' first chart-topper.[citation needed] At the beginning of a tour of the Mid-West in April 1963, Jardine rejoined the Beach Boys at Brian's request.21 As he began playing live gigs again, Brian left the road to focus on writing and recording. The result of this arrangement produced the albums Surfer Girl, released on September 16, 1963 and Little Deuce Coupe, released less than a month later on October 7, 1963. This sextet incarnation of the Beach Boys did not extend beyond these two albums, as Marks officially left the band in early October due to conflict with manager Murry, pulling Brian back into touring.22 Around this time, Brian began using members of the Wrecking Crew to augment his increasingly demanding studio arrangements.23 Session musicians that participated on Wilson's productions were said to have been awestruck by his musical abilities, as drummer Hal Blaine explained, "We all studied in conservatories; we were trained musicians. We thought it was a fluke at first, but then we realized Brian was writing these incredible songs. This was not just a young kid writing about high school and surfing."24 For composer Frank Zappa, the most exciting thing to him in "white-person-music" was when the Beach Boys used the progression V–II on "Little Deuce Coupe", calling it "an important step forward by going backward."25 A standalone Christmas-themed single, "Little Saint Nick", was released in December 1963, backed with an a capella rendition of the scriptural song "The Lord's Prayer". The A-side peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Christmas chart.26 Following a successful Australasian tour in January and February 1964, the band returned home to face the British Invasion through the Beatles appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show. Signed to the same label as the Beach Boys, Capitol immediately began waning their support for the group, causing Murry to fight proactively for the band at the label more than before, often showing up to their offices in person without a call in advance in order to "twist executive arms".27 Brian reacted to the Beatles with pronounced bemusement: "I was flipping out. I couldn't understand how a group could be just yelled and screamed at. The music they made, 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' for example, wasn't even that great a record, but they just screamed at it. ... It got us off our asses in the studio. We started cutting – we said 'look, don't worry about the Beatles, we'll cut our own stuff."28 Reportedly,[by whom?] Brian wanted more time to complete their next album, yet Capitol insisted they finish recording swiftly to avoid being forgotten in the throes of the impending invasion.[citation needed] Satisfying these demands, the band hastily finished the sessions on February 20, 1964 and titled the album Shut Down Volume 2. "Fun, Fun, Fun" was released as a single from the album (backed with "Why Do Fools Fall in Love") and was a major hit. The LP, while containing several filler tracks, was propelled by other songs such as the melancholic "The Warmth of the Sun" and the advanced production style of "Don't Worry Baby".18 Brian soon wrote his last surf song in April 1964.29 That month, during recording of the single "I Get Around", Murry was relieved of his duties as manager. Brian reflected, "We love the family thing – y'know: three brothers, a cousin and a friend is a really beautiful way to have a group – but the extra generation can become a hang-up".15 When the single was released in May of that year, it would climb to number one, their first single to do so. Two months later, the album that the song later appeared on, All Summer Long, reached number four on the Billboard 200 charts. All Summer Long introduced exotic textures to the Beach Boys' sound exemplified by the piccolos and xylophones of its title track.30 The album was a swan-song to the surf and car music the Beach Boys built their commercial standing upon. Later albums took a different stylistic and lyrical path.31 Before this, a live album, Beach Boys Concert, was released in October to a four-week chart stay at number one, containing a setlist of previously-recorded hits and covers that they hadn't yet recorded.32 Today! and Summer Daysedit Main articles: The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, The Beach Boys Today!, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and Beach Boys' Party! In June 1964, Brian began recording the bulk of The Beach Boys' Christmas Album with a forty-one-piece studio orchestra in collaboration with Four Freshmenarranger Dick Reynolds. Released in December, it was divided between five new, original Christmas-themed songs and seven reinterpretations of traditional Christmas songs.34 One single from the album, "The Man with All the Toys", was released, peaking at number 6 on the US Billboard Christmas chart.35 On October 29, the Beach Boys performed for The T.A.M.I. Show, a concert film intended to bring together a wide range of hit-making musicians for a one-off performance. The result was released to movie theaters one month later.36 By the end of the year, the stress of road travel, composing, producing and maintaining a high level of creativity became too much for Brian. On December 23, while on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston, he suffered a panic attack only hours after performing with the Beach Boys on the musical variety series Shindig!.37In January 1965, he announced his withdrawal from touring to concentrate entirely on songwriting and record production. For the rest of 1964 and into 1965, Glen Campbell served as Wilson's temporary replacement in concert, until his own career success pulled him from the group in April 1965.38 Bruce Johnston was asked to locate a replacement for Campbell; having failed to find one, Johnston himself became a full-time member of the band on May 19, 1965, first replacing Brian on the road and later contributing in the studio, beginning with the vocal sessions for "California Girls" on June 4, 1965.3940 Brian Wilson working at a studio session After Brian relinquished touring in 1965, he became a full-time studio artist, showcasing a great leap forward with The Beach Boys Today!, an album containing a suite-like structure divided by songs and ballads which portended the Album Era with its cohesive artistic statement.41 During the recording sessions for Today!, Love told Melody Makerthat he and the band wanted to look beyond surf rock and to avoid living in the past or resting on their laurels.42 The resulting LP had largely guitar-oriented pop songs such as "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "Good to My Baby" on side A with B-side ballads such as "Please Let Me Wonder" and "She Knows Me Too Well".3243 Today! marked a maturation in the Beach Boys' lyric content by abandoning themes related to surfing, cars, or teenage love. Some love songs remained, but with a marked increase in depth, along with introspective tracks accompanied by adventurous and distinct arrangements.4144 In June 1965, the band released Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). The album included a reworked arrangement of "Help Me, Rhonda" which had become the band's second number one single in the spring of 1965, displacing the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride". "Let Him Run Wild" tapped into the youthful angst that would later pervade their music.[according to whom?] In November 1965, the group followed up their US number-three-charting "California Girls" from Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) with another top-twenty single, "The Little Girl I Once Knew". It was considered the band's most experimental statement thus far,32 using silence as a pre-chorus, clashing keyboards, moody brass and vocal tics.[according to whom?] The single continued Brian's ambitions for daring arrangements, featuring unexpected tempo changes and numerous false endings.45 Perhaps too extreme an arrangement[according to whom?] to go much higher than its number 20 peak, it was the band's second single not to reach the top ten since their 1962 breakthrough.[citation needed] Capitol demanded a Beach Boys LP for the 1965 Christmas season, and to appease them, Brian conceived Beach Boys' Party!, a live-in-the-studio album consisting mostly of acoustic covers of 1950s rock and R&B songs, in addition to covers of three Beatles songs, Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'", and idiosyncratic rerecordings of the group's earlier hits.18 In December they scored an unexpected number two hit (number three in the UK) with "Barbara Ann", which Capitol released as a single with no band input. Originally by the Regents, it became one of the Beach Boys' most recognized hits.[citation needed] Pet Soundsedit Main article: Pet Sounds Pet Sounds is regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time and is one of the most universally acclaimed in rock history2146 In 1966, the Beach Boys formally established their use of unconventional instruments and elaborate layers of vocal harmonies on their groundbreaking record Pet Sounds.3247 It is considered Brian's most concise demonstration of his production and songwriting expertise.4849 With songs such as "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Sloop John B", the album's innovative soundscape incorporates elements of pop, jazz, classical, exotica, and the avant-garde.50 The instrumentation combines found sounds such asbicycle bells and dog whistles with classically-inspired orchestrations and the usual rock set-up of drums and guitars;5132 among others, silverware, accordions, plucked piano strings, barking dogs, and plastic water jugs.52 For the basic rhythmic feel for "God Only Knows", harpsichord, piano with slapback echo, sleigh bells, and strings spilled into each other to create a rich blanket of sound.53 Pet Sounds is considered by some as a Brian Wilson solo album in all but name, as other members contributed relatively little to the compositions or recordings.543255Influenced by psychedelic drugs, Brian turned inward and probed his deep-seated self-doubts and emotional longings; the piece did not address the problems in the world around them, unlike other psychedelic rock groups.56 As Jim Miller wrote of the album's tone, "It vented Wilson's obsession with isolation cataloging a forlorn quest for security. The whole enterprise, which smacked of song cycle pretensions, was streaked with regret and romantic langour."57 According to Brian, the album was designed as a collection of art pieces which belong together yet could stand alone.5859 Released in May, Pet Sounds eventually peaked at number eleven in the US and number two in the UK,60[verification needed] an accomplishment which helped the Beach Boys become the strongest selling album act in the UK for the final quarter of 1966, dethroning the three-year reign of native bands such as the Beatles.61[verification needed] Met with a lukewarm critical reception in the US,62 Pet Sounds was indifferently promoted by Capitol and failed to become the major hit Wilson had hoped it would be.63 Its failure to gain a wider recognition in the US combined with Capitol's decision to issue Best of The Beach Boys in July dispirited Brian, who considered Pet Sounds an extremely personal work.64 It was assumed that the label considered the album a risk, appealing more to an older demographic than the younger, female audience the Beach Boys built their commercial standing on.65 Pet Sounds''sales numbered approximately 500,000 units, a significant drop-off from the chain of million-selling albums which immediately preceded it.62 ''Best of The Beach Boys was quickly certified Gold by the RIAA.66 In a 1972 review of Pet Sounds, music journalist Stephen Davis wrote, Pet Sounds went on to be acknowledged as an important historical and cultural work,69 remaining today as an evocative release with distinctive lushness and melancholy.5768 Beyond pop and rock, Pet Sounds''expanded the field of music production.70717273 It was massively influential upon its release, vaunting the band to the top level of rock innovators.32 It is one of the earliest rock concept albums,7068 one of the earliest concept albums of the counterculture era,74 and an early album in the emerging psychedelic rock style,75 signaling a turning point wherein rock, which previously had been considered dance music, became music that was made for listening to.76 In ''The Album: A Guide to Pop Music's Most Provocative, Influential, and Important Creations, author James Perone championed the album for its complex orchestrations, sophisticated compositions, and varied tone colors, calling it a remove from "just about anything else that was going on in 1966 pop music."77 In 1976, journalist Robin Denselow wrote: "With the 1966 Pet Sounds album … Wilson had become America's equivalent of the Beatles with his ability to expand the limits of popular taste."78 Paul McCartney named it one of his favorite albums of all time on multiple occasions, calling it the primary impetus for the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).79 In 2003, Pet Sounds was ranked second in "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list selected by Rolling Stone, behind only Sgt. Pepper.79 "Good Vibrations" and Smileedit Main articles: Good Vibrations and Smile (The Beach Boys album) Seeking to expand on ''Pet Sounds advances, Wilson began an even more ambitious project: "Good Vibrations". Like Pet Sounds, Brian opted for an eclectic array of instruments rarely heard in pop music.82 Described by Brian as a "pocket symphony,"83 it contains a mixture of classical, rock, and exotic instruments structured around a cut-up mosaic of musical sections represented by several discordant key and modal shifts.84 It became the Beach Boys' biggest hit to date and a US and UK number one single in 1966. Coming at a time when pop singles were usually made in under two hours, it was one of the most complex pop productions ever undertaken, and the most expensive single ever recorded to that point.828586 The production costs were estimated between $50,000 and $75,000 ($360,000 and $550,000 today) with sessions for the song stretching over several months in at least four major studios.86 According to Domenic Priore, the making of "Good Vibrations" was unlike anything previous in the realms of classical, jazz, international, soundtrack or any other kind of recording.85 The single was an unequivocal milestone in studio productions,87828889 and continued in establishing Brian as an extender of popular tastes.78 To the counterculture of the 1960s, "Good Vibrations" served as an anthem.90 Rock critic Gene Sculatti prophesied in 1968, "It may yet prove to be the most significantly revolutionary piece of the current rock renaissance."91 Its instrumentation included the Tannerin, an easier-to-manipulate version of a theremin which helped the Beach Boys claim a new hippie audience.9293 Upon release, the single prompted an unexpected revival in theremins while increasing awareness of analog synthesizers, leading Moog Music to produce their own brand of ribbon-controlled instruments.94 Reflecting on this period in 1971, Cue magazine wrote: "In the year and a half that followed Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys were among the vanguard in practically every aspect of the counter culture – psychedelia, art rock, a return to roots, ecology, organic food, the cooled-out sound – anticipating changes that rock didn't accomplish until 1969–1970."95 A short-lived film production company entitled Home Movies was established by the group during this time. It was supposed to have created live action film and television properties which star the Beach Boys. Only one music video was completed by the company for "Good Vibrations", though various other psychedelic sequences and segments exist.96 I'm doing the spiritual sound, a white spiritual sound. Religious music…That's the whole movement…That's where I'm going and it's going to scare a lot of people when I get there. —Brian Wilson quoted in Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!, Jules Siegel, 196797 Brian met musician and songwriter Van Dyke Parks while working on Pet Sounds.9899 A year later while in the midst of recording "Good Vibrations", the duo began an intense collaboration that resulted in a suite of challenging new songs for the Beach Boys ' forthcoming album Smile, intended to surpass Pet Sounds.100 Recording for the album spanned about a year, from 1966 to 1967.101 It is known that Wilson and Parks intended Smile to be a continuous suite of songs that were linked both thematically and musically, with the main songs being linked together by small vocal pieces and instrumental segments that elaborated upon the musical themes of the major songs.102 Surviving recordings have shown that the music incorporated chanting, cowboy songs, explorations in Indian and Hawaiian music, jazz, tone poems with classical elements, cartoon sound effects, musique concrète, and yodeling.103 Smile would go on to become the most legendary unreleased album in the history of popular music.32104 In the decades following its non-release, it became the subject of intense speculation and mystique.105106Many believe that, had the album been released, it would have substantially altered the group's direction, establishing them at the vanguard of rock innovators.107 Writing about the album for the 33⅓ book series, Luis Sanchez believed: "If Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys were going to survive as the defining force of American pop music they were, Smile was a conscious attempt to rediscover the impulses and ideas that power American consciousness from the inside out. It was a collaboration that led to some incredible music, which, if it had been completed as an album and delivered to the public in 1966, might have had an incredible impact."108 Many factors combined to put intense pressure on Brian Wilson as Smile neared completion: his own mental instability, the pressure to create against fierce internal opposition to his new music, the relatively unenthusiastic response to Pet Sounds in the United States, Carl Wilson's draft resistance, and a major dispute with Capitol Records.[citation needed] Furthermore, Wilson's reliance on both prescription drugs andamphetamines exacerbated his underlying mental health problems. Comparable to Brian Jones and Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson's use of psychedelic drugs—especially LSD—led to a nervous breakdown in the late-1960s.[citation needed] As his legend grew, the Smile period came to be seen as the pivotal episode in his decline and he became tagged as one of the most notorious celebrity drug casualties of the rock era.32[not in citation given] 1967–77: the Beach Boys as a democratic unitedit Smiley Smile and Wild Honeyedit Main articles: Smiley Smile, Lei'd in Hawaii and Wild Honey (album) Some Smile tracks were salvaged and re-recorded in scaled-down versions at Brian's new home studio. Along with the single version of "Good Vibrations", these tracks were released on Smiley Smile, an album which elicited positive critical and commercial response abroad, but was the first real commercial failure for the group in the United States.109 By this time the Beach Boys' management (Nick Grillo and David Anderle) had created the band's own record label, Brother. One of the first labels to be owned by a rock group, Brother Records was intended for releases of Beach Boys side projects, and as an invitation to new talent.[citation needed] The initial output of the label, however, was limited to Smiley Smile and two resulting singles from the album; the failure of "Gettin' Hungry" caused the band to shelve Brother until 1970.[citation needed] Despite the cancellation of Smile, several tracks—including "Our Prayer", "Cabin Essence" and "Surf's Up"—continued to trickle out in later albums often as filler songs to offset Brian's unwillingness to contribute.110 The band was still expecting to complete and release Smile as late as 1973 before it became clear that only Brian could comprehend the endless fragments that had been recorded.111 Smiley Smile was followed up three months later with Wild Honey, featuring songs written by Wilson and Love, including the hit "Darlin'" and a rendition of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made to Love Her". The album fared better than its predecessor, reaching number 24 in the US. By 1967, the Beach Boys had become cultural dinosaurs. And it happened almost overnight.…Monterey was a gathering place for the "far out" sounds of the "new" rock, and the Beach Boys in concert really had no exotic sounds to display. The net result of all their internal and external turmoil was that the Beach Boys didn't go…and it is thought that this non-appearance was what really turned the "underground" tide against them. —David Leaf112 Compounding the group's recent setbacks, their public image took a cataclysmic hit following their withdrawal from the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival90 for the reason that they had no new material to play while their forthcoming single and album lay in limbo.113 Their cancellation was seen as "a damning admission that they were washed up and unable to compete with the 'new music'".114 This notion was exacerbated by Rolling Stone writer Jann Wenner, whom within contemporary publications criticized Brian Wilson for his oft-repeated "genius" label which he called a "promotional shuck" and an attempt to compare with the Beatles.114 However, Wenner later responded to their Wild Honey album with more optimism, remarking two months later that "in any case it's good to see that the Beach Boys are getting their heads straight once again".115 Former band publicist Derek Taylor later recalled a conversation with Brian and Dennis where they denied that the group had ever written surf music or songs about cars, and that the Beach Boys had never been involved with the surf and hot rod fads, as Taylor claimed, "…they would not concede."116 As a result of their initial target demographic and subsequent failures to blend with the hippie movement, the group was viewed as unhip relics,117 even though they had once been, as biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote, "the absolute center of the American rock ’n’ roll scene,"118 a time when they had ushered the psychedelic era.119120 In early 1969, Brian proposed that the group change their name from "the Beach Boys" to "the Beach", reasoning for the simple fact that the band members were now grown men. Going to the effort of acquiring a contract which would declare a five-way agreement to officially rename the group, Stephen Desper reported, "They all just kind of shrugged and said, 'Aw, come on, Brian, we don't wanna do that. That's how the public knows us, man. And that was it. He put the paper on the piano and it stayed there until I picked it up and took it away."121 Friends and 20/20edit Main articles: Friends (The Beach Boys album) and 20/20 (The Beach Boys album) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1973 After meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a UNICEF Variety Gala in Paris, France on December 15, 1967, Love, along with other high-profile celebrities such as Donovan and the Beatlestraveled to Rishikesh in India during February and March 1968.122123 The following Beach Boys album Friends (1968) had songs influenced by the Transcendental Meditation taught by the Maharishi. The album reached number 13 in the UK and 126 in the US, the title track placing at number 25 in the UK and number 47 in the US, the band's lowest singles peak since 1962. In support of the Friends album, Love had arranged for the Beach Boys to tour with the Maharishi in the US, which has been called "one of the more bizarre entertainments of the era".124Starting on May 3, 1968, the tour lasted five shows and was cancelled when the Maharishi had to withdraw to fulfill film contracts. Due to disappointing audience numbers and the Maharishi's withdrawal, twenty-four tour dates were subsequently cancelled at a cost estimated at US$250,000 (approximately US$1,610,000 today) for the band.123125 This tour was followed by the release of "Do It Again", a single which critics described as an update of the Beach Boys' surf rock past in a late-1960's style.126 The single went to the top of the Australian and UK single charts in 1968 and was moderately successful in the US, peaking at number 20.127 For a short time in mid-1968, Brian Wilson sought psychological treatment in hospital.128 During his absence, other members began writing and producing material themselves. To complete their contract with Capitol, they produced one more album. 20/20 (1969) was one of the group's most stylistically diverse albums, including hard rock songs such as "All I Want to Do", thewaltz-based "Time to Get Alone" and a remake of the Ronettes' "I Can Hear Music".129130 The diversity of genres have been described as an indicator that the group was trying to establish an updated identity.131 The album performed strongly in the UK, reaching number three on the charts. In the US, the album reached a modest 68. In spring 1968, Dennis began a strained relationship with musician Charles Manson which persisted for several months afterward. Dennis bought him time at Brian's home studio where recording sessions were attempted while Brian stayed in his room.132 It was then proposed by Dennis that Manson be signed to Brother Records, though Brian reportedly disliked Charlie, and so a deal was never made.133 Without Manson's involvement, the Beach Boys did record one song penned by Manson: "Cease to Exist" rewritten as "Never Learn Not To Love". The idea of the Beach Boys recording one of his songs reportedly thrilled Manson, and it was released as a Beach Boys single. After accruing a large monetary debt to the group, Dennis deliberately omitted Manson's credit on its release while also altering the song's arrangement and lyrics.134 This greatly angered Manson.135136 Growing fearful, Dennis gradually distanced himself from Manson, whose family had taken over his home.137 He was eventually convicted for murder conspiracy; from there on, Dennis was too afraid of the Manson family to ever speak publicly on his relationship, let alone testify against him.138139 On April 12, 1969, the band revisited their 1967 lawsuit against Capitol Records after they alleged an audit undertaken revealed the band were owed over US$2,000,000 (US$12,860,000 today) for unpaid royalties and production duties.140 The band's contract with Capitol Records expired on June 30, 1969, after which Capitol Records deleted the Beach Boys' catalog from print, effectively cutting off their royalty flow.140141In November 1969, Murry Wilson sold Sea of Tunes, the Beach Boys' catalogue, to Irving Almo Music, a decision which according to Marilyn Wilson "devastated Brian".142 In late 1969, the Beach Boys reactivated their Brother label and signed with Reprise. Around this time, the band commenced recording for a new album. At the time the Beach Boys tenure ended with Capitol in 1969, they had sold 65 million records worldwide, closing the decade as the most commercially successful American group in popular music.143 Sunflower, Surf's Up, "So Tough", and Hollandedit Main articles: Sunflower (The Beach Boys album), Surf's Up (album), Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" and Holland (album) In 1970, armed with the new Reprise contract, the band appeared rejuvenated, releasing the album Sunflower to critical acclaim in the UK but indifference in the US.131 The album features a strong group presence with significant writing contributions from all band members.131 Brian was active during this period, writing or co-writing seven of the twelve songs on Sunflower and performing at half of the band's domestic concerts in 1970. Sunflower reached number 29 in the UK and number 151 in the US, the band's lowest domestic chart showing to that point.144 A version of "Cottonfields" arranged by Al Jardine appeared on European releases of Sunflower and as a single, reached number one in Australia, Norway, South Africa and Sweden and the top-five in six other countries, including the UK.[citation needed] After Sunflower, the band hired Jack Rieley as their manager. Under Rieley's management, the group's music began emphasizing political and social awareness.145 During this time, Carl Wilson gradually assumed leadership of the band and Rieley contributed lyrics. On August 30, 1971 the band released Surf's Up, named after the Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks composition "Surf's Up". The album was moderately successful, reaching the US top 30, a marked improvement over their recent releases. While the record charted, the Beach Boys added to their renewed fame by performing a near-sellout set at Carnegie Hall, followed by an appearance with the Grateful Dead at Fillmore East on April 27, 1971. The live shows during this era included reworked arrangements of many of the band's previous songs.146 A large portion of their set lists culled from Pet Sounds and Smile, as author Domenic Priore observes, "They basically played what they could have played at the Monterey Pop Festival in the summer of 1967."147 (Left to right) Carl Wilson, Al Jardine,Ricky Fataar, Dennis Wilson, Blondie Chaplin and Mike Love in 1972 Johnston ended his first stint with the band shortly after Surf's Up's release, reportedly[by whom?] because of friction with Rieley. At Carl's suggestion, the addition of Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin in February 1972 led to a dramatic restructuring in the band's sound. The album Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" was an uncharacteristic mix[according to whom?] that included two songs written by Fataar and Chaplin. For their next project the band, their families, assorted associates and technicians moved to the Netherlands for the summer of 1972. They rented a farmhouse to convert into a makeshift studio where recording sessions for the new project would take place. By the end of their sessions, the band felt they had produced one of their strongest efforts yet.[according to whom?] Reprise, however, felt that the album required a strong single. This resulted in the song "Sail On, Sailor", a collaboration between Brian Wilson, Tandyn Almer, Ray Kennedy, Jack Rieley and Van Dyke Parks featuring a soulful lead vocal by Chaplin.148 Reprise subsequently approved and the resulting album, Holland, was released early in 1973, peaking at number 37. Brian's musical children story, Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale), narrated by Rieley and strongly influenced by Randy Newman's Sail Away (1972), was included as a bonus EP.149 Despite indifference from Reprise, the band's concert audience started to grow.[citation needed] The Beach Boys in Concert, a double album documenting the 1972 and 1973 US tours, was another top-30 album and became the band's first gold record under Reprise. During this period the band established itself as one of America's most popular live acts. Chaplin and Fataar helped organize the concerts to obtain a high quality live performance, playing material off Surf's Up, Carl and the Passions and Holland and adding songs from their older catalog. This concert arrangement lifted them back into American public prominence. In late 1973, the 41-song soundtrack to American Graffiti was released including the band's early songs "Surfin' Safari" and "All Summer Long". The album was a catalyst in creating a wave of nostalgia that reintroduced the Beach Boys into contemporary American consciousness.150 In 1974, Capitol Records issued Endless Summer, the band's first major pre-''Pet Sounds'' greatest hits package. The compilation surged to the top of the Billboard album charts and was the group's first multi-million selling record since "Good Vibrations". It remained on the charts for two years.151 Capitol followed with a second compilation, Spirit of America, which also sold well. With these compilations, the Beach Boys became one of the most popular acts in rock, propelling themselves from opening for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to headliners selling out basketball arenas in a matter of weeks.152 Rolling Stone named the Beach Boys the "Band of the Year" for 1974, solely on the basis of their juggernaut touring schedule and material written over a decade earlier.153[need quotation to verify] Rieley, who remained in the Netherlands after Holland 's release, was relieved of his managerial duties in late 1973.[citation needed] Chaplin also left in late 1973 after an argument with Steve Love, the band's business manager (and Mike's brother).153 Fataar remained until 1974, when he was offered a chance to join a new group led by future Eagles member Joe Walsh.153 Chaplin's replacement, James William Guercio, started offering the group career advice that resulted in his becoming their new manager.153 Under Guercio, the Beach Boys staged a highly successful 1975 joint concert tour with Chicago, with each group performing some of the other's songs, including their previous year's collaboration on Chicago's hit "Wishing You Were Here".153 Beach Boys vocals were also heard on Elton John's 1974 hit "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me".[citation needed] Nostalgia had settled into the Beach Boys' hype;[according to whom?] the group had not officially released any new material since 1973's Holland. While their concerts continuously sold out, the stage act slowly changed from a contemporary presentation followed by oldies encores to an entire show made up of mostly pre-1967 music.153 15 Big Ones and Love Youedit Main articles: 15 Big Ones, Love You (album) and Adult/Child 15 Big Ones (1976) included a stylized version of the Beach Boys' name by Dean Torrence which would later become their official logo Recorded in the wake of California Music's demise, a supergroup which would have involved Brian Wilson, Bruce Johnston, and record producer Terry Melcher,154 15 Big Ones (1976) marked Brian's return as a major force in the group.151 The album included new songs by Brian, as well as cover versions of oldies such as "Rock and Roll Music", "Blueberry Hill", and "In the Still of the Night". "Rock and Roll Music" peaked at number 5 in the US.127 Brian and Love's "It's O.K." was in the vein of their early sixties style and was a moderate hit.[citation needed] The album was publicized by an August 1976 NBC-TV special, simply titled "The Beach Boys". The special, produced by Saturday Night Live (SNL) creator Lorne Michaels, featured appearances by SNL cast members John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.155 Brian Wilson behind Brother Studios' mixing console in 1976 The album was generally disliked by fans and critics upon release.156 During its sessions, Brian's production role was belittled as group members overdubbed and remixed tracks to fight against his desire for a rough, unfinished sound.157 Carl and Dennis disparaged the album to the press while Brian admitted "undoubtedly the new album is nothing too deep," but remained hopeful that their next release would be on par with the group's "Good Vibrations".156 For the remainder of 1976 to early 1977, Brian spent his time making sporadic public appearances and producing the band's next album Love You (1977), a quirky collection of 14 songs mostly written, arranged and produced by Brian. Brian revealed to Peter Ames Carlin that Love You is one of his favorite Beach Boys releases, telling him "That's when it all happened for me. That's where my heart lies."158 Love You peaked at number 28 in the UK and number 53 in the US and developed a cult following; regarded as one of the band's best albums by fans and critics alike, and an early work of synthpop.1 "A diseased bunch of motherfuckers if ever there was one … But the miracle is that the Beach Boys have made that disease sound like the literal babyflesh pink of health … Maybe it's just that unprickable and ingenuous wholesomeness that accounts not only for their charm, but for their beauty—a beauty so awesome that listening to them at their best is like being in some vast dream cathedral decorated with a thousand gleaming American pop culture icons." —Lester Bangs in a review of Love You for Circus, June 9, 1977.159160 Referring to "naysayers" of the album, the underground fanzine Scram wrote "fuck them … album showcases a truly original mix of humor and sadness. The original numbers always dance just a step away from the cliché, dealing with simple lyrical themes that make you wonder why they had never been explored before."161 The A.V. Club – considering the album to be in "the same vein" as Tonight's the Night (1975), Pussy Cats (1974), The Madcap Laughs (1970), and Barrett (1970) – described''Love You'': "something almost desperately optimistic ... Wilson sings frayed songs about roller-skating, road-tripping, and Johnny Carson—like a frazzled man sitting in a corner chanting 'calm blue ocean' over and over. It’s a beautiful, noisy, funny, heartbreaking work of art—one not for everybody, yet vital for anyone who wants to understand Wilson’s overall worldview."162 After Love You was released, Brian began to record and assemble Adult/Child, an unreleased effort largely consisting of songs written by Wilson from 1976 and 1977 with select big band arrangements by Dick Reynolds.163 Though publicized as the Beach Boys' next release, Adult/Child caused tension within the group and was ultimately shelved.163 Following this period, his concert appearances with the band gradually diminished and their performances were occasionally erratic.164 The internal wrangling came to a head after a show at Central Park on September 1, 1977, when the band effectively split into two camps; Dennis and Carl Wilson on one side, Mike Love and Al Jardine on the other with Brian remaining neutral.165 Following a confrontation on an airport tarmac, Dennis declared to Rolling Stone on September 3 that he had left the band: "It was Al Jardine who really knifed me in the heart when he said they didn't need me. That was the clincher. And all I told him was that he couldn't play more than four chords. They kept telling me I had my solo album now [Pacific Ocean Blue], like I should go off in a corner and leave the Beach Boys to them. The album really bothers them. They don't like to admit it's doing so well; they never even acknowledge it in interviews."166 The band broke up for two and a half weeks, until a meeting on September 17 at Brian's house. In light of a potential new Caribou Records the parties negotiated a settlement resulting in Love gaining control of Brian's vote in the group, allowing Love and Jardine to outvote Carl and Dennis Wilson on any matter.1673 1978–presentedit Intergroup strugglesedit Main articles: M.I.U. Album, L.A. (Light Album) and Keepin' the Summer Alive The Beach Boys' last album for Reprise, M.I.U. Album (1978), was recorded at Maharishi International University in Iowa at the suggestion of Love.168 Dennis and Carl made limited contributions; the album was mostly produced by Jardine and Ron Altbach, with Brian credited as "executive producer".169 M.I.U. was largely a contractual obligation to finish out their association with Reprise, who likewise did not promote the result.168 The record cemented the divisions in the group. Love and Jardine focused on rock and roll-oriented material while Carl and Dennis chose the progressive focus they had established with the albums Carl and the Passions and Holland.[citation needed] Dennis withdrew from the group to focus on his second solo album entitled Bambu. The album was shelved just as alcoholism and marital problems overcame all three Wilson brothers.170 Carl appeared intoxicated during concerts (especially at appearances for their 1978 Australia tour) and Brian gradually slid back into addiction and an unhealthy lifestyle.171 After departing Reprise, the Beach Boys signed with CBS Records. They received a substantial advance and were paid $1 million per album even as CBS deemed their preliminary review of the band's first product,L.A. (Light Album) as unsatisfactory. Faced with the realization that Brian was unable to contribute, the band recruited Johnston as producer. The result paid off, as "Good Timin'" became a top 40 single. The group enjoyed moderate success with a disco reworking of the Wild Honey song "Here Comes the Night" which was followed by their highest charting UK single in nine years: Jardine's "Lady Lynda" peaked at number 6 in the UK Singles Chart.[citation needed] The album was followed in 1980 by Keepin' the Summer Alive, with Johnston once again producing. Barring an appearance on percussion on the closing track, "Endless Harmony", Dennis was absent from this album. In 1981, Carl quit the group due to unhappiness with the band's nostalgia format and lackluster live performances, subsequently pursuing a solo career.170 He returned in May 1982 – after approximately 14 months of being away – on the condition that the group reconsider their rehearsal and touring policies, along with refraining from "Las Vegas-type engagements".172 The Beach Boys with PresidentRonald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan, 1983 From 1980 through 1982, the Beach Boys and The Grass Roots performed Independence Day concerts at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., attracting large crowds.173174 However, in April 1983, James G. Watt, President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, banned Independence Day concerts on the Mall by such groups. Watt said that "rock bands" that had performed on the Mall on Independence Day in 1981 and 1982 had encouraged drug use and alcoholism and had attracted "the wrong element", who would mug attendees.174 During the ensuing uproar, which included over 40,000 complaints to the Department of the Interior, the Beach Boys stated that theSoviet Union, which had invited them to perform in Leningrad in 1978, "obviously … did not feel that the group attracted the wrong element".174175 Vice President George H. W. Bush said of the Beach Boys, "They're my friends and I like their music".174 Watt later apologized to the band after learning that President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan were fans.176 White House staff presented Watt with a plaster foot with a hole in it, showing that he had "shot himself in the foot".177 The band returned to D.C. for Independence Day in 1984 and performed to a crowd of 750,000 people.178 Deaths of Dennis and Carledit Main articles: The Beach Boys (album), Still Cruisin', Kokomo (song), Summer in Paradise and Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 Dennis' ongoing personal problems kept him out of the group's recent activities.[citation needed] His alcoholism continued to escalate, and on December 28, 1983, he drowned in Marina del Rey while diving from a friend's boat trying to recover items he had previously thrown overboard in fits of rage.179 Despite his death, the Beach Boys continued as a successful touring act.180 On July 4, 1985, the Beach Boys played to an afternoon crowd of one million in Philadelphia and the same evening they performed for over 750,000 people on the Mall in Washington (the day's historic achievement was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records).[citation needed] They also appeared nine days later at the Live Aid concert. That year, they released the eponymous album The Beach Boys and enjoyed a resurgence of interest later in the 1980s, assisted by tributes such as David Lee Roth's hit version of "California Girls".[citation needed] "Getcha Back", released from the album, gave the group a number 26 single in the US. Following this, the group put out "Rock and Roll to the Rescue" (US, number 68) and a cover of the Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin' (US, number 57).127 127 In 1987, they played with the rap groupThe Fat Boys, performing the song "Wipe Out" and filming a music video. It was a number 12 single in the US.127 and a number two rank in the UK.181 By 1988, Brian had drifted from the Beach Boys and released his first solo album, Brian Wilson, which received critical acclaim.[citation needed] During this period the band unexpectedly claimed their first US number one hit single in 22 years with "Kokomo", which had appeared in the movie Cocktail, and soon became the band's largest selling single of all time.182 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier in the year, the group became the second artist after Aretha Franklin to hit number one in the US after their induction.[citation needed] They released the album Still Cruisin', which went gold in the US and gave them their best chart showing since 1976.[citation needed] In 1990, the band gathered several studio musicians and recorded the Melcher-produced title track of the comedy Problem Child. Stamos again appeared on the video, and later appeared singing lead vocals on "Forever" (written by Dennis Wilson for the Sunflower album) and on their 1992 album Summer in Paradise. Having no new contributions from Brian Wilson due to interference from caretaker Eugene Landy, Summer in Paradise was poorly regarded by both critics and fans, was a commercial disaster and would become their last album of original material for two decades.[citation needed] Members of the band appeared on several television shows such as Full House, Home Improvement, and Baywatch in the late 1980s and 1990s.[citation needed] A lawsuit was filed by Wilson in 1989 to reclaim the rights to his songs and the group's publishing company, Sea of Tunes, which he had supposedly signed away to his father Murry in 1969. He successfully argued that he had not been mentally fit to make an informed decision and that his father had potentially forged his signature. While Wilson failed to regain his copyrights, he was awarded $25 million for unpaid royalties.183Soon after Wilson won his case, Love discovered that Murry Wilson had not properly credited him as co-writer on dozens of Beach Boys songs. With Love and Brian Wilson unable to determine exactly what Love was properly owed, Love sued Wilson in 1992, winning $13 million in 1994 for lost royalties.184 In interviews, Love revealed that on some songs he wrote most of the lyrics, on others only a line or two. Even though Love sued Wilson, both parties said in interviews that there was no malice between them; they simply couldn't come up with an agreeable settlement by themselves.[need quotation to verify] In 1993, the band appeared in Michael Feeney Callan's film The Beach Boys Today, which included in-depth interviews with all members except Brian. Carl confided to Callan that Brian would record again with the band at some point in the near future.[need quotation to verify] A few Beach Boys sessions devoted to new Brian Wilson compositions occurred during the mid-1990s, but they remain largely unreleased, and the album was quickly aborted due to tenuous relations.175185 In February 1996, the Beach Boys guested with Status Quo on a re-recording of "Fun, Fun, Fun", which became a British Top-30 hit.[citation needed] In June, the group worked with comedian Jeff Foxworthy on the recording "Howdy From Maui", and eventually released Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 in August 1996. The album consisted of country renditions of several Beach Boys hits, performed by popular country artists such as Toby Keith and Willie Nelson. Brian Wilson, who was in a better mental state at the time, acted as co-producer. In early 1997, Carl Wilson was diagnosed with lung cancer and brain cancer after years of heavy smoking. Despite his terminal condition, Carl continued to perform with the band on its 1997 summer tour while undergoing chemotherapy.186 During performances, he sat on a stool and reportedly needed oxygen after every song. Carl was able to stand, however, when he played on "God Only Knows".[citation needed] Carl died on February 6, 1998, two months after the death of the Wilsons' mother, Audree. Band split and name conflictsedit The touring line-up of Mike Love and Bruce Johnston's "The Beach Boys Band", plus guest member David Marks, in 2008 Following Carl's death, the remaining members splintered. Love, Johnston and former guitarist Marks continued to tour without Jardine, initially as "America's Band", but following several cancelled bookings under that name, they sought authorization through Brother Records Inc. (BRI) to tour as "The Beach Boys" and secured the necessary license.[citation needed] In turn Jardine began to tour regularly with his band dubbed "Beach Boys: Family & Friends" until he ran into legal issues for using the name without license; meanwhile, Jardine sued Love and Brian claiming that he had been excluded from their concerts.187 BRI, through its longtime attorney, Ed McPherson, sued Jardine in Federal Court. Jardine, in turn, counter-claimed against BRI for wrongful termination. BRI ultimately prevailed after several years. Love was allowed to continue to tour as The Beach Boys, while Jardine was prohibited from touring using any form of the name.[citation needed] Released from Landy's control, Brian Wilson sought different treatments for his illnesses that aided him in his solo career. He toured regularly with his backing band consisting of members of Wondermints and other LA/Chicago musicians. Marks also maintained a solo career. Their tours remained reliable draws, with Wilson and Jardine both remaining legal members of the Beach Boys organization and BRI.[citation needed] The surviving group members appeared as themselves for the 1998 documentary film Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story, directed by Alan Boyd. Following the success of 1997's The Pet Sounds Sessions, many compilations were then issued by Capitol containing new archival material: Endless Harmony Soundtrack (1998), Ultimate Christmas (1998), and Hawthorne, CA (2001). In 2004, Wilson recorded and released his solo album Brian Wilson Presents Smile, a reinterpretation of the Smile project that he initiated with the Beach Boys thirty-six years earlier. That September, Wilson issued a free CD through the Mail On Sunday that included Beach Boys songs he'd recently rerecorded, five of which he'd co-authored with Love. The 10 track compilation had 2.6 million copies distributed and prompted Love to file a lawsuit in November 2005; he claimed the promotion hurt the sales of the original recordings.188 Love's suit was dismissed in 2007 when a judge determined that there were no triable issues.189 On June 13, 2006, the five surviving Beach Boys (Wilson, Love, Jardine, Johnston, and Marks) appeared together for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Pet Sounds and the double-platinum certification of their greatest hits compilation, Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys, in a ceremony atop the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. Plaques were awarded for their efforts, with Wilson accepting on behalf of Dennis and Carl. Throughout the year, it was rumored that the band would reform to perform the Pet Sounds album live in its entirety in November. Ultimately, Wilson began a brief Pet Sounds tour with Jardine and no other group members.190 50th year reunion celebrationedit Main articles: The Smile Sessions, That's Why God Made the Radio and The Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Reunion Tour The cover for The Smile Sessions''uses the artwork Frank Holmesprepared in 1966 for ''Smile On October 31, 2011, the Beach Boys released surviving 1960s recordings from Smile in the form of The Smile Sessions. The album—even in its incomplete form—garnered universal critical acclaim and experienced popular success, charting in both the Billboard US and UK Top 30. The band was rewarded with glowing reviews, including inclusion in Rolling Stone's Top 500 album list at number 381. The Smile Sessions went on to win Best Historical Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards. Brian Wilson personally accepted the award stating "I guess Van Dyke and I were on to something after all."[citation needed] In February 2011, the Beach Boys released "Don't Fight the Sea", a charity single to aid the victims of the 2011 Japan earthquake. The single, released on Jardine's 2011 album A Postcard From California featured Jardine, Wilson, Love and Johnston, with prerecorded vocals by Carl Wilson.[citation needed] Rumors then circulated regarding a potential 50th anniversary band reunion. On December 16, 2011, it was announced that Wilson, Love, Jardine, Johnston and Marks would reunite for a new album and 50th anniversary tour in 2012 to include a performance at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in April 2012.191 On February 12, 2012, the Beach Boys performed at the 2012 Grammy Awards, in what was billed as a "special performance" by organizers. It marked the group's first live performance to include Brian since 1996.192 The Beach Boys then appeared at the April 10, 2012, season opener for the Los Angeles Dodgers and performed "Surfer Girl" along with "The Star-Spangled Banner". In April, the new album's title was revealed as That's Why God Made the Radio.193 The first single from the album, the title track, made its national radio debut April 25, 2012, on ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning194[not in citation given] and was released on iTunes and other digital platforms on April 26.195 That's Why God Made the Radio debuted at number three on US charts, making US chart history by expanding the group's span of Billboard 200 top ten albums across 49 years and one week, passing the Beatles with 47 years of top ten albums.196 Later in 2012, the group released the Fifty Big Ones and Greatest Hits compilations along with reissues of 12 of their albums. The next year, the group released Live – The 50th Anniversary Tour a 41 song, 2-CD set documenting their 50th Anniversary Tour. While there were no definite plans, Brian stated that he would like to make another Beach Boys album following the world tour.197198 In August 2013, the group released''Made in California'', a six disc collection featuring more than seven and a half hours of music, including more than 60 previously unreleased tracks,199 and concluding the Beach Boys' 50th anniversary campaign. That same year, former members of the Beach Boys touring band, Bobby Figueroa, Billy Hinsche, Ed Carter, Matt Jardine (son of Al Jardine), and Philip Bardowell (sometimes with Randell Kirsch and others) united to form California Surf, Incorporated, performing Beach Boy songs.[citation needed] Resumed band splitedit Love (far left) and Johnston (far right) performing as the Beach Boys in 2014 In June 2012, Love announced additional touring dates which would not feature Wilson. Wilson then denied knowledge of these new dates.200201 On October 5, Love announced in a self-written press release to the LA Times that the band would return to its pre-50th Reunion Tour lineup with him and Johnston touring as the Beach Boys without Wilson, Jardine, and Marks: Four days later, Wilson and Jardine submitted a written response to the rumors stating: "After Mike booked a couple of shows with Bruce, Al and I were, of course, disappointed. Then there was confusion in some markets when photos of me, Al and David and the 50th reunion band appeared on websites advertising his shows … I was completely blindsided by his press release … We hadn't even discussed as a band what we were going to do with all the offers that were coming in for more 50th shows."203 Love accused Wilson's statements in this press release to be falsified by his agents, again affirming that the presupposed agreements were "well-documented",204 and that Wilson had halted further touring dates.205 On December 13, Wilson and Jardine played a Christmas show at which they performed the Beach Boys Christmas songs.206207 Following this appearance, Wilson announced concert dates featuring himself, Jardine and Marks.208 Love and Johnston continued to perform under the Beach Boys name,209 while Wilson, Jardine, and Marks continued to tour as a trio,210 and a subsequent tour with guitarist Jeff Beck also included former Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin at select dates.[citation needed] Reflecting upon the band's reunion in 2013, Love stated: "I had a wonderful experience being in the studio together. Brian has lost none of his ability to structure those melodies and chord progressions, and when we heard us singing together coming back over the speakers it sounded like 1965 again. Touring was more for the fans. … It was a great experience, it had a term to it, and now everyone's going on with their ways of doing things."211 Jardine, Marks, Johnston and Love appeared together at the 2014 Ella Awards Ceremony, where Love was honored for his work as a singer.212 Marks sang "409" in honor of Love while Jardine performed "Help Me Rhonda". They closed the show by performing "Fun, Fun, Fun".213 Wilson's long time band associate Jeff Foskett also appeared, but not Wilson. On May 15, 2014 the touring Beach Boys (Love and Johnston) announced a tour celebrating "50 Years of 'Fun Fun Fun'", named for their 1964 single. The tour featured the addition of Foskett, who replaced Mike's son Christian.214 Foskett left Wilson's band due to encumbering responsibilities, and hopes that Wilson and Love's band would someday converge, believing that the two Beach Boys don't "personally have a problem with each other."215 As of September 2014, Jardine has maintained that a continued reunion with the Beach Boys is "really up to him Love … He claims he didn't, that he fired us after the reunion … He’s a brilliant songwriter, and unfortunately he has brilliant lawyers. We wish him all the best, but doggonit, you know, we’d like to be Beach Boys, too. There you go."216 As Jardine restates "Love doesn’t really want to work with us," biographer Jon Stebbins speculated that Love declined to continue working with the group due to the lesser control he had over the touring process, coupled with the lower financial gain, noting: "Night after night after night after night, Mike is making less money getting reminded that Brian is more popular than him. And he has to answer to people instead of calling all the shots himself."217 In 2015, Soundstage will air an episode featuring Wilson performing with Jardine and former Beach Boys Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar at The Venetian in Las Vegas.218 Musical style and developmentedit See also: The Beach Boys lineups In Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, music theorist Daniel Harrison summarizes: The Beach Boys performing in 1964 Influenced by doo-wop and rhythm and blues, they began as a garage band playing 1950s style rock and roll.220 During their early years, the Beach Boys released music that displayed an increasing level of sophistication, a period where Brian Wilson consistently acted as the group's primary bandleader, songwriter, producer, and arranger for the group's most commercially and critically successful work.22152 Together, the band reassembled styles of music such as surf to include vocal jazz harmony, creating their unique sound.222223 In addition, they introduced their signature approach to common genres such as the pop ballad by applying harmonic or formal twists not native to rock and roll.224 Miller observed, "On straight rockers they sang tight harmonies behind Love's lead … on ballads, Brian played his falsetto off against lush, jazz-tinged voicings, often using (for rock) unorthodox harmonic structures."225 Harrison adds, "But even the least distinguished of the Beach Boys' early uptempo rock 'n' roll songs show traces of structural complexity at some level; Brian was simply too curious and experimental to leave convention alone."219 This new sound was quickly associated with the Modernismmovement blooming in the Los Angeles music scene.226 The band later went on to incorporate many genres, from baroque pop to psychedelia and synthpop.227 In early 1964, Brian began his breakaway from beach-themed music.228 Later in November of the same year, the group expressed desires to advance from the surf rock style for which they initially became known for.42 Experimentation with psychotropic substances proved pivotal to the group's development as artists.22944 The following month, Brian was introduced to cannabis before quickly progressing to LSD in early 1965. Of his first acid trip,230 Brian recalled that the drug had subjected him to "a very religious experience" which enlightened him to indescribable philosophies.231 The music for "California Girls", the first Beach Boys song which Bruce Johnston participated in,232 came from this first LSD experience,230 as did much of the group's subsequent work where they would often partake in drug use during recording sessions.233 Brian is quoted saying: "Everyone contributed something. Carl kept us hip to the latest tunes, Al taught us his repertoire of folk songs, and Dennis, though he didn't initially play anything, added a combustible spark just by his presence."[citation needed] Early on, Love sang lead vocals in the rock-oriented songs, while Carl contributed crisp guitar lines on the group's ballads.225 In a 1966 article which asks "Do the Beach Boys rely too much on sound genius Brian?", Carl responded that every member of the group contributes ideas, but admitted that Brian was majorly responsible for their music.234 Influencesedit The band's earliest influences came primarily from the work of Chuck Berry4 and the Four Freshmen.226 Performed by the Four Freshmen, "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" (1961) was a particular favorite of the group.237 By deconstructing their arrangements of pop standards, Brian educated himself on jazz harmony.8 Taking this into mind, Philip Lambert noted, "If Bob Flanigan helped teach Brian how to sing, thenGershwin, Kern, Porter, and the other members of this pantheon helped him learn how to craft a song."238 Other general influences on the group included the Hi-Los,2265 the Penguins, the Robins, Bill Haley & His Comets, Otis Williams, the Cadets, the Everly Brothers, the Belmonts, the Shirelles, the Regents, and the Crystals.2396 While the Beach Boys are not often associated with blues, Brian has called this a misapprehension, citing Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder as influences.242 Regarding surf rock pioneer Dick Dale, Brian clarified that his influence on the group was limited to Carl and his style of guitar playing.2437 The influence of the Beach Boys' peers combined with Brian's competitive nature drove him to reach higher creative peaks.538 Sometime around late 1963, he heard the song "Be My Baby" (1963) by the Ronettes for the first time, revamping his creative interests and songwriting.246 "Be My Baby" is considered the epitome of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production technique, a recording method that would fascinate Wilson for the next several decades.247 Brian later reflected: "I was unable to really think as a producer up until the time where I really got familiar with Phil Spector's work. That was when I started to design the experience to be a record rather than just a song."2489 He kept "Be My Baby" on his living room jukebox, and would listen to it whenever the mood struck him.10 According to engineer Larry Levine, "Brian was one of the few people in the music business Phil respected. There was a mutual respect. Brian might say that he learned how to produce from watching Phil, but the truth is, he was already producing records before he observed Phil. He just wasn't getting credit for it, something that in the early days, I remember really used to make Phil angry. Phil would tell anybody who listened that Brian was one of the great producers."254 Other prominent inspirations for Brian included Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" (1924),255 the Beatles' Rubber Soul (1965),11 and composer Burt Bacharach.257 Author Domenic Priore wrote that, in a subtle way, Brian grew to appreciate the potential of what a pop song could do after being partially spurred on by the dynamics of Bacharach's "Walk On By" (1964), a song which would become just as influential to him as "Be My Baby", supporting his strive to achieve a sense of dynamics in his recordings while he began pulling away from a purely Spector-inspired approach to production.258 Brian supported this by saying, "Burt Bacharach and Hal David are more like me. They’re also the best pop team – per se – today. As a producer, Bacharach has a very fresh, new approach."25712 Vocal abilityedit Brian identified each member individually for their vocal range, once detailing the ranges for Carl, Dennis, Jardine ("they progress upwards through G, A, and B") Love ("can go from bass to the E above middle C"), and himself ("I can take the second D in the treble clef").5913 He declared in 1966 that his greatest interest was to expand modern vocal harmony, owing his fascination with voice to the Four Freshmen which he considered a "groovy sectional sound".59 He added, "The harmonies that we are able to produce give us a uniqueness which is really the only important thing you can put into records – some quality that no one else has got. I love peaks in a song – and enhancing them on the control panel. Most of all, I love the human voice for its own sake."26059 Rock critic Erik Davis wrote, "The 'purity' of tone and genetic proximity that smoothed their voices was almost creepy, pseudo-castrato, and a 'barbershop' sound."52 According to Brian: "Jack Good once told us, 'You sing like eunuchs in a Sistine Chapel,' which was a pretty good quote."59 For a period, Brian avoided singing falsetto for the group, saying "I thought people thought I was a fairy. ... The band told me, 'If that's the way you sing, don't worry about it.'"261 From lowest intervals to highest, the group's vocal harmony stack usually began with Love or Dennis, followed by Jardine or Carl, and finally Brian on top.262 Jardine explains, "We always sang the same vocal intervals. … As soon as we heard the chords on the piano we’d figure it out pretty easily. If there was a vocal move Brian envisioned, he’d show that particular singer that move. We had somewhat photographic memory as far as the vocal parts were concerned so that never a problem for us."262 Striving for absolute perfection, Brian's intricate vocal arrangements exercised the group's calculated blend of intonation, attack,phrasing, and expression.263 Sometimes, he would sing each vocal harmony part alone through multi-track tape.54 Jimmy Webb has said, "They used very little vibrato and sing in very straight tones. The voices all lie down beside each other very easily – there's no bumping between them because the pitch is very precise."264 As instrumentalistsedit The group's instrumental combo initially involved Brian on bass guitar and keyboards, Carl on guitar, and Dennis on drums.265 From an early age, Brian demonstrated an extraordinary skill for learning music by earon keyboard.266 Using major Hollywood recording studios, he arranged many of his compositions for a conglomerate of session musicians informally known as the Wrecking Crew due to the increasingly complicated nature of the material.2314 As a result, a number of songs do not credit the Beach Boys as instrumentalists, but nearly invariably as lead, harmony, or backing vocalists.[citation needed] It's the belief of Richie Unterberger that "before session musicians took over most of the parts, the Beach Boys could play respectably gutsy surf rock as a self-contained unit."18 In spite of this, Carl Wilson continued to play beside these musicians whenever he was available to attend sessions.267 In archivist Craig Slowinski's view, "One should not sell short Carl's own contributions; the youngest Wilson had developed as a musician sufficiently to play alongside the horde of high-dollar session pros that big brother was now bringing into the studio. Carl's guitar playing was a key ingredient."268 Songwriting and productionedit See also: Brian Wilson's home studio and Brother Studios The inside of United Western Recorders. Western Studio 3 (not pictured) was one of several Hollywoodrecording spaces favored by Brian Brian's experiments with his Wollensack tape recorder provide early examples of his flair for exotica and unusual percussive patterns and arranging ideas that he would recycle in later prominent work.269 Through attending Phil Spector's sessions sporadically, Brian learned how to act as a producer for records while being educated on the Wall of Sound process.260 From then on, Brian received some production advice from Jan Berry. As they collaborated on several hit singles written and produced for other artists, they recorded what would later be regarded the California Sound.270271 The positive commercial response to Brian's structurally irregular and harmonically varied pop compositions gave him the prestige, resources, and courage to further his creative aspirations.272 He proceeded to explore many unusual combinations of instruments while emphasizing inventive percussion and progressively ambitious lyricism.273274 Although he was often dubbed a perfectionist, Brian was an inexperienced musician, and his understanding was mostly self-taught.27515 He handled most stages of the group's recording process from the beginning, despite Nik Venet being credited for producing their early recordings.279280 With regards to Brian's mid 1960s productions, ethnomusicologist David Toop characterized his style as "cartoon music and Disney influence mutating into avant-garde pop".281 Before 1966, Brian's mastery of songwriting proved that he was capable of applying odd harmonic progressions, unexpected disruptions of hypermeter,282 jazz theory,283 tempo changes, metrical ambiguity, and unusual tone colors successfully within a pop context.284 He made on-the-spot decisions about notes, articulation, and timbre; composing at the mixing board and using the studio as a musical instrument.260 Despite this, in most cases he was forced to rely on outside collaborators when it came to adding lyricism to his compositions. It was at this stage that Brian usually worked with bandmate Mike Love285 whose assertive persona provided youthful swagger that contrasted Brian's explorations in romanticism and sensitivity.286 Luis Sanchez noted a pattern where Brian would spare surfing imagery when working with collaborators outside of his band's circle in the examples "Lonely Sea" and "In My Room".287 He preferred mixing live as performances were recorded, as opposed to mixing after the fact.23 He was open to changes suggested by others while recording, often taking advice and even incorporating apparent mistakes if they provided a useful or interesting alternative.288289 He experimented with processed effects including varispeed, reverberation, slapback echo, and filtering signals through a Leslie speaker.290 Lyric collaborator Tony Asher remembers that in the 1960s: "People would try whatever they could think of that was unexpected, just for its own sake...spend three days and call in a bunch of oboe players. Try an instrument just because nobody had ever used it, and in the end, it wasn't in the final mix. That never happened with Brian. He did the same kind of experimenting, not to see if he could accidentally stumble onto something unique, but he did these unique things because that's what he wanted to hear. And most of the time, it ended up on the record."291 Once an instrumental track was completed, vocals would then beoverdubbed by the group.51 On Surfin' U.S.A. (1963), Brian began doubletracking.19 As was practiced by other record producers from the 1960s, most of his mixes ended up in single-channel monaural,292believing that varied stereo speaker placement took his control over the sound image away to the listener.293 A Rickenbacker 360/12identical to the 12-string guitar used by Carl Wilson in the early to mid-1960s Eschewing Capitol Studios which Brian considered inadequate,294264295 engineer Chuck Britz often collaborated with him at Western 3 of United Western Recorders,296 also serving as a buffer between Brian and the oft-berating Murry whenever he was present.297 Once Britz assembled a preliminary recording setup, Brian would take over the console, directing the instrumentalists from the booth using an intercom or verbal gestures after supplying them with chord charts which were sometimes written incorrectly.298 It's reported that even though Britz was responsible for setting up recording, Brian would then adjust his configuration to a large extent.299 Asher adds: "As unorganized or even unproductive as he Brian could be in other situations, when he got into a recording session, you had the sense he had ideas that were gonna get away from him if he didn't get 'em done right away. He was willing to have people be relaxed and joke a little bit, but he wanted to get work done. And he sometimes lost his temper just a little bit if Chuck couldn't find a take."291 At Gold Star Studios, Brian worked mainly with engineers Stan Ross and, with lesser frequency, Larry Levine.254 Ross said of Brian, "he liked the sound Gold Star got on the instrumentation, but he did the voices elsewhere because we were limited to two or three tracks and that wasn't enough for voice overdubbing. ... The tracks were really rhythm pads that would be sweetened after the voices were put on."300 As Brian's productions advanced, he became recognized for his pop artistry, vocal harmonization, incessant studio perfectionism,30124 forward-thinking song structures,283 engineering and mixing know-how,302 and creative multitasking abilities.303 Asher was surprised to learn that Brian arranged his own string orchestrations, recalling his "economic" use of a relatively low number of players: "Because if you've got 40 strings, somebody'll be playing the right notes. But when you've only got 4 or 5 or a small number of voices, everything's audible, and there's nothing to distract people's ear from what you're writing."291 Session bassist Carol Kaye noted, "We had to create instrumental parts for all the other groups we cut for, but not Brian. We were in awe of Brian."44 Friend Danny Hutton expressed similar feelings while highlighting Brian's studio proficiency, citing what he believed to be an extraordinary talent at harnessing several different studio spaces while piecing together discrete instrumental patterns and timbres cohesively. He noted, "Somebody could go in right after Brian’s session and try to record, and they could never get the sound he got. There was a lot of subtle stuff he did. … People don’t talk that much about it. They always talk about his music. He was fabulous in the studio, in terms of getting sounds. You’d sit there, and that was him. He was just hands-on. He would change the reverb and the echo, and all of a sudden, something just – whoa! – got twice as big and fat."304 Foreshadowed by Beach Boys' Party! (1965), much of the group's recordings from 1967–1970 displayed sparse instrumentation, a more relaxed ensemble, and a seeming inattention to production quality.305 Brian briefly experimented with musique concrete306 and minimalist rock approaches to music307 before retreating to his home recording studio to record "manic" material in the 1970s, enacting syncopated exercisesand counterpoints layered on jittery eighth note tone clusters and loping shuffle grooves.308 During the infancy of Brian's home studio, the group was forced to improvise many technical aspects of recording. In one instance, they used an empty swimming pool as an echo chamber.309[page needed] When Brian abdicated from the group, the other members were forced to take a more active production role.310 This is believed to have faltered the quality of their music.90 Richie Unterberger believes that after the December 1967 release of Wild Honey, "the Beach Boys were revealed as a group that, although capable of producing some fine and interesting music, were no longer innovators on the level of the Beatles and other figureheads."32 The album marked the beginning of Carl's increased role as producer, who described it as "music for Brian to cool out by,"311 signaling a mellower approach which would pervade into the 1970s.52 In 1968, Dennis contributed original songs to Friends, revealing himself as a broodingly soulful songwriter and singer, while Bruce Johnston devised a moody instrumental, "The Nearest Faraway Place", for 20/20 the following year.312 Sunflower (1970) marked an end to the experimental songwriting and production phase initiated by Smiley Smile (1967).313 Of the albums between Surf's Up (1971) and Holland(1973), Daniel Harrison wrote that they "contain a mixture of middle-of-the-road music entirely consonant with pop style during the early 1970s with a few oddities that proved that the desire to push beyond conventional boundaries was not dead."313 While Harrison adamantly states "1974 is the year in which the Beach Boys ceased to be a rock 'n' roll act and became an oldies act,"313 Love You (1977) is perceived by some as an oddity that sounds like no other record in their catalog314 with synthesizer-laden arrangements played almost entirely by Brian.170 Legacyedit Cultural and musical impactedit The 1932 Ford that appeared on the cover to the platinum certified Little Deuce Coupe album Regarded by some critics as one of the greatest American rock groups and an important catalyst in the evolution of popular music, the Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time.1315 The Beach Boys' sales estimates range from 100 to 350 million records worldwide, and have influenced artists spanning many genres and decades.316 The group's early songs made them major pop stars in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries, having sixteen hit singles between 1962 and 1965.[citation needed] They were one of the few American bands formed prior to the 1964 British Invasion to continue their success.317 Among artists of the 1960s, they are one of few central figures in the histories of rock.318 Their early hits helped raise the profile of the state of California, creating its first major regional style with national significance, and establishing a musical identity for Southern California, as opposed to Hollywood.319 This also associated the band with surfing, hot-rod racing, and a contemporaneous teenage lifestyle and fantasy.320321322 There had been surf bands formed prior to the Beach Boys, but none which projected a world view as the Beach Boys did.323 Brian's work is credited as a major innovation in the field of music production.70 According to Erik Davis, "Not only did the Beach Boys write a soundtrack to the early '60s, but Brian let loose a delicate and joyful art pop unique in music history and presaged the mellowness so fundamental to '70s California pop."52 The A.V. Club wrote that Brian was among "studio rats ... that set the pace for how pop music could and should sound in the Flower Power era: at once starry-eyed and wistful."324 Only 21-years-old when he received the freedom to produce his own records with total creative autonomy, he ignited an explosion of like-minded California producers, supplanting New York as the center of popular records,325 and becoming the first rock producer to use the studio as a discrete instrument.326 The Beach Boys were thus one of the first rock groups to exert studio control.323 The group was among early (or earliest) instigators of psychedelic rock,119327 acid rock,32880 art rock,329330 art pop,52331 progressive rock,8081332 and sunshine pop.324 Besides the Beatles,333334 the Beach Boys attracted a following from a great number of their pop or rock contemporaries during the 1960s, including the Rolling Stones,335 Harry Nilsson,334 Cream,[citation needed] George Martin,333 the Who,91Roger Waters of Pink Floyd,336 Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground,240 and Frank Zappa.25 In the 1970s, the Beach Boys' were paid homage by punk rock artists such as Ramones,334 Patti Smith,337 andLester Bangs.338 Additionally, they influenced pioneering musicians for glam rock: David Bowie and Marc Bolan;339 krautrock: Faust,340 Kraftwerk;341 power pop: Big Star;334 and post-punk: Talking Heads.342Later, the group bore a strong influence on indie rock.329 Over the years, the group's songs have been the subject of many tribute albums,343 several of which are compiled from cover versions contributed by various artists from a wide range of backgrounds includingJapanese noise, pop punk, rockabilly, and trip hop.344 In the 1990s, the Beach Boys received a resurgence of popularity with alternative rock groups.345 Those who advocated for the band included founding members of the Elephant 6 Collective: Neutral Milk Hotel, the Olivia Tremor Control, the Apples in Stereo, and of Montreal. United by a shared love of the Beach Boys' music, they named Pet Sounds Studio in honor of the group.241346347 Other influenced artists who gained prominence in underground circles during the 1980s and 1990s include shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine,334 electronica outfits Daft Punk,348 Saint Etienne,334 The High Llamas,334349 the Avalanches,350 Stereolab,334 and alternative rock musicians Radiohead,[citation needed] Sonic Youth,[citation needed] Frank Black of Pixies,334 and Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout.351 In Japan, their music affected the work of noise rock bands Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her and Melt-Banana,344 along with J-pop performers Tatsuro Yamashita,352 Flipper's Guitar,334353 andYellow Magic Orchestra.[citation needed] The Beach Boys' influence has continued to pervade in such millennial artists as Air,334 Animal Collective,334 Fleet Foxes,334 MGMT,[citation needed] and Frank Ocean.334 Reappraisaledit Professor of cultural studies James M. Curtis wrote in 1987, The Beach Boys in a promotional shot used for their 1965 single "California Girls" Throughout their career, the Beach Boys struggled with their public image and audiences.354355241356357 Musicologist Charlie Gillett explains, "By 1965, the Beach Boys had become an American pop institution, but although they continued to cultivate a visual image in line with their name and early repertoire, there was a limit to how many different ways Wilson could celebrate the wonders of living in Southern California … Originally, many serious pop fans dismissed the group as trashy pop for kids, the Beach Boys began to attract wide admiration just as Brian Wilson found the strain of public adulation more than he had bargained for; retreating from live performances, Wilson spent most of his time in the recording studio, constructing the songs."358 Their growing complexity caused their live performances to suffer in the mid 1960s, when the group began to be derided by audiences for their uniformed striped shirts359 compounded by low key reproductions of songs which demanded complicated orchestrations.360 In their earliest public appearances, the band wore heavy wool jacket-like shirts which were favored by local surfers361 before switching to their trademark striped shirts and white pants360362 inspired by the Kingston Trio.363 In the latter half of the decade, the Beach Boys promoted anti-war activism,364 Transcendental Meditation365366 andenvironmentalism. In 1970, the group ceased wearing matching uniforms on stage and began emphasizing political and social awareness.145367 Drawing from their associations with Charles Manson and Ronald Reagan, Erik Davis observed, "the Beach Boys may be the only bridge between those deranged poles. There is a wider range of political and aesthetic sentiments in their records than in any other band in those heady times—like the state California, they expand and bloat and contradict themselves."52 Peter Ames Carlin noted that while the Beach Boys' contemporaries grew more intellectually aware, "Capitol continued to bill them as 'America’s Top Surfin' Group!' Their TV appearances still took place on sets dressed with surfboards, beach balls, and chicks doing the twist in candy-colored bikinis. And when the summer sales season neared, everyone still expected Brian to crank out another batch of ready-made tunes set on the beaches, highways, and backseats he’d long since lost interest in describing."368 He adds, "Clearly, the group’s disconnect from the cultural avant-garde was not all Capitol’s doing or even entirely a product of the group’s own commercial motivations. Bear in mind that the Beach Boys themselves were still college-aged, only none of them had been to college, nor (with the possible exception of Brian) had they shown much discernible interest in what you might call the world of ideas. … This makes the humanities students among us slap our foreheads and moan with sorrow."369 Collaborator Van Dyke Parks has spoken that he and Brian were conscious of the counterculture, and that the two had felt estranged from it, but also that it was necessary to adhere to due to a willingness to "get out of the Eisenhower mindset."370 Parks stresses, "At the same time, he didn't want to lose that kind of gauche sensibility that he had. He was doing stuff that nobody would dream of doing. You would never, for example, use one string on a banjo when you had five; it just wasn't done. But when I asked him to bring a banjo in, that’s what he did. This old-style plectrum thing. One string. That’s gauche."370 Despite the group's immense popularity and success, some consider that the extent of their contribution to Western music canon is undervalued. In 1967, Lou Reed famously wrote, "Will none of the powers that be realize what Brian Wilson did with the chords?"240 Pitchfork Media posited, "At some point, you learn that the Beach Boys weren't just a fun 1960s surf band with a run of singles that later came to be used in commercials; at their best, they were making capital-A Art. … Once you've absorbed [Pet Sounds], you find yourself going back through songs like "Don't Worry Baby", "The Warmth of the Sun", and "I Get Around", finding a deeper brilliance where you once heard only pop craftsmanship."371 Discussing the 2011 release of The Smile Sessions, The Los Angeles Times wrote, "…certainly every library of American recording history needs this; university composition departments, music professors, budding recording engineers and composers should study it."372 Online publication NewMusicBox – which normally devotes itself to new American music that is outside the commercial mainstream – argued, The group's legitimacy in rock music is an oft-repeated criticism toward the band.374 Luis Sanchez refers to "one of the smuggest accounts of the Beach Boys' music" in an essay written by Mark Sten for the book''Rock Almanac: Top Twenty American and British Singles and Albums of the '50s, '60s and '70s'' where Sten denounces the group for celebrating a "politically unconscious youth culture." He writes of their hot rod and surfing themes, "the Klean Kut Kar Krazy Kalifornia Kwintet finally came out and said it, embracing the high school status quo and generally coming off as mindless hedonistic reactionaries. Well, shit, it mattered to me."375 Sanchez responds, "It is one of The Beach Boys' enduring legacies that, for all the wresting of creative proprietorship, you can’t ignore the line of corniness running through their music. But what does that mean? If only they had had a better sense of their position as rock revolutionaries, they wouldn't have made the music they did, much less music that reflects what a critic like Sten finds too quaint and reactionary?" Sanchez argues that it's typical of a "rockist" outlook to create prevalence on "an apparent lack of commitment to a code of authenticity than to risk taking the music at face value, to consider what it is that might make it distinct and worthy simply as music."376 I think a lot of critics punish the band for not going beyond "Good Vibrations" ... I think they love the band so much that they get crazy because we don't top ourselves. But we've become a forever-type of band ... every time there's a new Beach Boy record it competes with so many old Beach Boy records on the radio. ... the audience is so young and they're reacting more to the Beach Boys sound-alike commercials on TV and the three or four really big, quadruple platinum repackage albums. I'm not down on any of that stuff, but ... growth in this business is tough —Bruce Johnston speaking to the Houston Chronicle, August 1982377 Daniel Harrison contests that the group produced work which could "almost" be considered art music in the Western classical tradition, and that group's innovations in the musical language of rock can be compared to those that introduced atonal and other nontraditional techniques into that classical tradition. He explains, "The spirit of experimentation is just as palpable in Smiley Smile as it is in, say, Schoenberg's op. 11 piano pieces."307 While the group "went into the great void beyond," such notions were not widely acknowledged by rock audiences nor by the classically-minded at the time.378 Harrison concludes: "What influences could these innovations then have? The short answer is, not much. Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, and 20/20 sound like few other rock albums; they are sui generis. … It must be remembered that the commercial failure of the Beach Boys' experiments was hardly motivation for imitation. In the end, we must conclude that the Beach Boys' late-1960s experiments were not reproducible." Referring to the groups' reaction to the commercial success of their 1974 greatest hits compilation Endless Summer, Harrison writes, "they returned to the beach, knowing they would never leave it again."378 Erik Davis wrote that by 1990, "the Beach Boys are either dead, deranged, or dinosaurs; their records are Eurocentric, square, unsampled; they've made too much money to merit hip revisionism."52 From the same period, Jim Miller wrote, "They have become a figment of their own past, prisoners of their unflagging popularity—incongruous emblems of a sunny myth of eternal youth belied by much of their own best music. … The group is still largely identified with its hits from the early Sixties."379 Awards and honorsedit The Beach Boys' star on theHollywood Walk of Fame, located at 1500 Vine Street380 The group routinely appears in the upper reaches of ranked lists such as "The Top 1000 Albums of All Time".381 Many of the group's songs and albums including The Beach Boys Today! (1965), Smiley Smile (1967), Sunflower (1970), and Surf's Up (1971) are featured in several lists devoted to the greatest of all time.382 The 1966 releases Pet Sounds and "Good Vibrations" frequently rank among the top of critics' lists of the greatest albums and singles of all time.382 In 2004, Pet Sounds was preserved in theNational Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."69 On Acclaimed Music, "Good Vibrations" is ranked the third best song of all time, while "God Only Knows" is ranked twenty-first; the group itself is ranked eleven in its 1000 most recommended artists of all time.382 In 1966 and 1967, reader polls conducted by the UK magazine NME crowned the Beach Boys as the world's number one vocal group, ahead of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.383384 In 1974, the Beach Boys were awarded "Band of the Year" by Rolling Stone. On December 30, 1980, the Beach Boys were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 1500 Vine Street.385 The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Ten years later they were selected for the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.1386 In 2001, the group received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beach Boys number 12 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.387 Brian Wilson was inducted into the UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November 2006.388 The Wilsons' California house, where the Wilson brothers grew up and the group began, was demolished in 1986 to make way for Interstate 105, the Century Freeway. A Beach Boys Historic Landmark (California Landmark No. 1041 at 3701 West 119th Street), dedicated on May 20, 2005, marks the location. Influencededit * ABBA334 * Beck[citation needed] * Belle and Sebastian[citation needed] * The Beta Band[citation needed] * Bruce Springsteen[citation needed] * Lindsey Buckingham334 * Cheap Trick334 * Chicago334 * Elton John333 * The Flaming Lips[citation needed] * Fleetwood Mac334 * Keith Moon389390 * Marvin B. Naylor[citation needed] * Mr. Bungle[citation needed] * R.E.M.[citation needed] * Todd Rundgren334 * The Stone Roses[citation needed] * Super Furry Animals349 * Rivers Cuomo of Weezer391 * XTC334349 * Yo La Tengo334 Discographyedit Main article: The Beach Boys discography Further information: List of the Beach Boys songs and The Beach Boys bootleg recordings * Surfin' Safari (1962) * Surfin' U.S.A. (1963) * Surfer Girl (1963) * Little Deuce Coupe (1963) * Shut Down Volume 2 (1964) * All Summer Long (1964) * The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (1964) * The Beach Boys Today! (1965) * Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965) * Beach Boys' Party! (1965) * Pet Sounds (1966) * Smiley Smile (1967) * Wild Honey (1967) * Friends (1968) * 20/20 (1969) * Sunflower (1970) * Surf's Up (1971) * Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" (1972) * Holland (1973) * 15 Big Ones (1976) * Love You (1977) * M.I.U. Album (1978) * L.A. (Light Album) (1979) * Keepin' the Summer Alive (1980) * The Beach Boys (1985) * Still Cruisin' (1989) * Summer in Paradise (1992) * Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 (1996) * That's Why God Made the Radio (2012) ; See also * Brian Wilson discography * Carl Wilson discography * Dennis Wilson discography * Mike Love discography * Al Jardine discography Selected filmographyedit * 1976: The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations Tour * 1985: The Beach Boys: An American Band * 1996: The Beach Boys: Nashville Sounds * 1998: Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story * 2002: Good Timin': Live at Knebworth England 1980 * 2003: The Beach Boys: The Lost Concert 1964 * 2006: The Beach Boys: In London 1966 * 2012: The Beach Boys: Chronicles * 2012: The 50th Reunion Tour The Beach Boys also appear in the beach party films The Girls on the Beach (1965), in which they perform three songs "The Girls on the Beach", "Lonely Sea", and "Little Honda"; and The Monkey's Uncle (1965), in which they perform "The Monkey's Uncle" with Annette Funicello. The Beach Boys appeared in the Full House episode "Beach Boy Bingo", which aired on November 18, 1988. Mike Love and Bruce Johnston also appear in the episode "Captain Video" (Part 1) (1992), performing "Forever" with John Stamos. The Beach Boys also appeared in season six, episode four of Baywatch (1995), performing "Summer of Love". The life of the Beach Boys is the subject of two TV movies: Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys (1990 on ABC; released on DVD) and The Beach Boys: An American Family (2000 on ABC). Category:Surf Rock Category:Pop Rock